I mentioned some time ago that the portmanteau feature Peur[s] du noir (Fear[s] of the Dark, 2007) - the latest in a trend amongst French animated features which, together, seem to have made black and white into almost a by-word for "adult-aimed" - had been licensed for theatrical distribution in North America by IFC Films. It now has an English logo and has been screened by them several film festivals; a limited release is to follow on 24 October 2008. Meanwhile, here in the British Isles, it has been picked up by Metrodome Releasing and has been out on limited release since 3 October 2008 (though, despite that, the only showing anywhere near me that I know of will be the at the Bradford Animation Festival).
It's a film which has had some interestingly mixed reactions, with most everyone who's seen it considering it worth experiencing but all with different, sometimes opposite, opinions as to what made it worthwhile and what prevented it from being truly great. For just a few examples, Amid Amidi was disappointed with most of the segments, finding that the creator's (who come the worlds of comics and graphic design)inexperience with filmmaking shows them up for the newcomers to time-based media that they are. In contrast, Nancy Denney-Phelps, another industry veteran, thought that all could be have been decent-quality shorts in their own right, her only major grievance being with the incongruity of Nicole Garcia's lilting narration during the abstract interludes. These interludes, written and directed by man mostly known as a typographer, break up not only the film as a whole but the stories themselves, the fragments of which are mixed up with one another throughout the film. This unorthadox presentation is perhaps the film's most derided element, but even then there are a few reviwers (such as Todd Brown writing for Twitch) who consider this as essential to the project as central theme and requirment to be monochrome, restraints which together elevate it into something more than any programme of short films (and which are, quite advisedly, not enforced too tightly).
Renaissance by Christian Volckman, © 2006 Onyx Films/Millimages/Luxanimation/Timefirm Ltd./France 2 Cinéma
Peur[s] du noir by Richard McGuire, © 2007 Prima Linea Productions/Richard McGuireNext up is the news that GKIDS, organisers of the New York International Children's Film Festival, have taken up the task of theatrically distribting Azur et Asmar in the USA (license holders the Weinstein Company having deciled to anything more than relasing it on DVD-Video with zero promotion). It will run at the IFC Center in New York from the 17 to 26 October (with an extra two showings in late November at Symphony Space) and will then, hopefully, tour the country, even after the DVD's release.
And as a third thing, it's been revealed that Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues (which I've, again, mentioned once or twice before here) will one of the features showing at the Leeds International Film Festival between the 4 and 16 November this year (the full programme will be officially announced as one part of this evening's [note: it was on the 10 October I was writing this!] Light Night (it's also showing in New York and Bradford, as part of the same festivals as Azur & Asmar and Peur[s] du noir respectively).
Many thanks to Cartoon Brew again for the news. And what's this? Steven Appleby's Small Birds Singing has animated by animated by his cousin, Linda McCarthy? And YAMAMURA Kôji is an excellent guitarist? I should check Sprockets more often; maybe even add it to ol' blog list?
Current music: St. Vincent (both of them) and Alela Diane
